I just can’t learn Hiragana

I’ve been trying to learn it for 2 weeks and I still have problems with it. I use the method when I write them over and over till I memorize them. But when I think I finally memorized them, I still make mistakes the next day. I feel like I’m not good enough to learn Japanese. I heard that some people learned Hiragana in just one day. If I’m having trouble with memorising Hiragana, how am I going to learn Kanji?

20 comments
  1. It took me, like, a month to learn Hiragana, and I still have problems. Dw, you’re doing fine.

  2. You won’t become perfect in only 2 weeks. The idea is to push kana into short term memory and then immediately move on to learning vocab (with kanji). From learning vocab you will then get thousands and thousands of opportunities to get better at kana. It takes a while to actually become fast at it and not make any mistakes anymore.

  3. I had the same problem, it IS hard to learn despite everyone saying its the “easiest to learn” i do agree its the easiest but that doesn’t MAKE it easy. What helped me the most to learn is to actually use it. While i was learning it i wanted to learn vocab aswell and romanji was getting annoying because i felt like i was saying it weird if i went off that instead of the hiragana so i practiced writing vocab but without romanji so i’d just look at the alphabet every time instead of having romanji. Eventually i got tired of looking but i realized once that happened i already knew alot of the words and could recognize the letters in other words so i just plugged them in and bam!! It finally clicked.

  4. Don’t sweat the mistakes. I was the same as you, but learning is not the same as perfecting. Think about english – sometimes we still misread words right?

  5. Important thing is to not get discouraged if you are passionate about learning!

    Maybe try learning some simple words that use the Hiragana you are learning. It will give you a reason to use hiragana.

    あ→あい love
    い→いえ house
    う→うえ above
    え→え picture
    お→おおいmany

    Maybe even simple sentences you can try to copy from resources.
    わたし は え を かきます。
    (I draw a picture. )

    It can be difficult at first to tell yourself now write す!
    And then you have to wrack your brain for an answer. Application can make things easier.

  6. Use multiple methods. As well as writing it out use flash cards (there’s heaps of apps for that), find a mnemonics list that suits you and try writing simple words that will help you connect characters together in actual words instead of just being “meaningless” letters on a page

  7. Try to memorize the Hiragana chart and then read some stories in Hiragna. Try not to check the romaji while you’re reading; only check it after. This is one of the methods I applied so that I could recognize (and read) Hiragana characters. If you know some Japanese words, try to write them with the characters you know too and write them multiple times! I hope this helps ^__^

  8. I use Twitter a lot so I ended up following a few Japanese accounts and accounts who teach Japanese as those accounts usually write in Hiragana/Katakana and I would practice reading the characters. Maybe this will help you, but also know this stuff is the gonna stick overnight.

  9. Be aware that you are not in a competition of learning. You don’t have to be as good as other. Just take your time and learn in your pace.

  10. It’s completely impossible to learn hiragana in a day. Don’t beat yourself up for not understanding the alphabet of a different language. I’ve been studying Japanese for over 6 years, and I still make the occasional mistake.

    Start learn 1 row of characters, and gently pace yourself into learning more. Learn the characters if the words you know, and practice it with them.
    Even learn some mnemonics if you need!

  11. Like a few other commenters suggested, using mnemonics can help a lot. I personally really liked the approach that Remembering the Kana took, because they don’t just use mnemonics, they teach the Kana in a way where they start you off with Kana that look similar to the letters we use, and then slowly build on top of those. The book still offers the sequence of あ い う え お か き く け こ etc., but you start with the introduction and then it’s like, “go to this page” and then “go to that page” and so on, until you’ve got all of them.

    After doing that, I solidified ny knowledge, by working through a textbook which had a Japanese text and the translation at the start of each chapter, and then I translated it myself first while covering the translation, checked if I got it right, and then translated it back to Japanese. So, got a lot of writing practice this way.

  12. [https://realkana.com/hiragana/](https://realkana.com/hiragana/) This site was a life changer for me as I started learning hiragana. Mnemonics didn’t work for me because I can’t really study that way. I didn’t use it for hiragana/katakana and I still am not using it for kanji. My method was to learn two collums a day i.e. from あーお and from かーこ. After that, I selected them and went on to the study section on the site and did that until I could memorize them. I personally did every collum separately and then combined them together for a final “harder” study practice, but you can do it the way that seems more attractive to you.

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